The object of the invention advantageously enables the development of new services for providing digital objects, for example by offering a person the possibility of giving one or more digital gifts to another person; more generally, the object of the invention proposes a new approach to the distribution chain for digital content in order to expand and enrich the products offered.
One aim of the invention is to allow a person to buy a digital object and give this digital object to another person.
For the purposes of the invention, in the following description “digital object” is understood to mean any digital object containing digital information, for example such as multimedia digital information. As non-limiting examples, the digital objects in the sense of the invention are digital content such as music, video, an e-book, software, an application, etc.
Currently, a large majority of systems for the distribution of digital objects consist of integrated and vertical systems. In this type of system, the digital object distribution chain is controlled by a single party which manages the digital content from publishing to distribution.
The parties in this growing market often provide proprietary distribution systems in which the digital objects offered have their own file format that can only be read by a device that is also supplied by the distributor.
This prevents the customer from accessing the object on devices other than the one originally provided for this purpose, which also prevents the customer from giving this digital object to another party, as the other party in principle does not have the right device.
For example, in the field of e-book distribution, when a consumer has chosen an e-book reader (a device for reading digital books) and has purchased one or more digital books, the device is tied to these books for the entire life of the books. If the consumer wants to change e-book readers, all these books could be lost; alternatively, if the consumer wants to read one of these books on another e-book reader, he or she may be unable to do so due to access control or file format issues. Similarly, it is not possible under any circumstances to gift a book or books that he or she has bought. Furthermore, if the rights attached to a purchased book expire at the end of a specified period after purchase and the book is not read during that period, access to its content (read access) is no longer possible after this period.
Other, more open digital object distribution systems exist. In these systems, the role of the digital object distributor is distinct from that of the digital object seller. In such systems, it is the digital objects that are exchanged between distributors and sellers. Such systems therefore require a high level of interoperability between the various parties in this market, in particular where it impacts the manufacturers of the digital media consumption devices and the infrastructure of the distribution system or the format of the distributed files.
With such systems, there is an issue concerning the security of the digital objects that are exchanged and distributed: these digital objects have a market value that invites piracy.
Often, to avoid or at least limit this type of fraudulent activity, the distribution systems use files with digital rights management (DRM).
The principle of such digital rights management is based on the use of encrypted works combined with conditional access. The distributor that uses such access control issues a key for accessing the digital object in exchange for a proof of purchase or a subscription.
Access to the digital object is then only authorized for the device or the software identification certified by the supplier. Such access is cumbersome to manage, for both the distributor and the end user. Such security also makes it impossible to give gifts as mentioned above.
Indeed, integrating security as DRM files creates problems for the user, particularly when the user changes reading devices, and prevents certain consumer activities such as making gifts or loans.
The distribution systems of the prior art therefore have many disadvantages, both for the distributors and for the consumer who is usually mobile and changes devices relatively often.
Similarly, technical and security constraints of the prior art distribution systems make it impossible to perform certain consumer activities such as making gifts or loans. For all the various reasons stated above, if someone wants to buy an e-book as a gift for someone else, he or she cannot do so in the current digital object distribution systems. Similarly, these systems make it impossible to loan digital objects.
This is unfortunate. In the field of traditional book publishing, it is quite common to give a book as a gift. The same is true with video or audio: a CD or DVD is a regular gift. Unfortunately, no current digital object distribution system allows such gifting.
Similarly, there is no digital object distribution system that allows borrowing or renting a digital object, as is currently possible at a library or video rental outlet.
The object of the invention is to improve the current situation described above.